雙語閱讀：東京太擁擠 日本政府付錢請民衆搬離

Japan’s government is considering a new way to get people to consider life outside Tokyo: Pay them to leave.

日本政府正考慮用一種新方法讓民衆離開東京去其他地方生活——那就是，花錢請他們走。

According to a report by national broadcaster NHK on Nov. 22, the government is mulling giving as much as 3 million yen to people who decide to relocate from the 23 wards of Tokyo and find jobs elsewhere, starting in the next fiscal year.

根據日本國家廣播機構日本放送協會11月22日的報道，日本政府正考慮從下一個財年起，給那些決定搬離東京23個區去其他地方找工作的人多達300萬日元（18.4萬元人民幣）的補助。

Tokyo and the greater metropolitan area surrounding the capital, with a total population of some 38 million, have long bucked the trend in Japan when it comes to demographics, even as Japan’s overall population shrinks. That’s often been at the cost of other cities.

東京和周邊的大都會區總人口多達3800萬，長久以來在人口統計數據中一直逆勢而上，即使日本總人口縮水，東京人口卻一直在增加。但這通常是以其他城市爲代價的。

Tokyo and the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama posted significant population growth in 2017. According to NHK, the number of people moving to Tokyo has exceeded the number moving out for 22 years and counting. Nearly one out of every three people in Japan lives in the Tokyo area.

2017年東京和千葉縣、神奈川縣、琦玉縣都報告了大幅度的人口增長。根據日本放送協會的數據，搬到東京的人數已經連續22年超過搬離東京的人數，而且超出數量還在不斷增加。日本近三分之一的人都生活在東京地區。

The government added that as more people leave other major cities such as Sendai and Sapporo in the north of Japan for Tokyo, it will encourage people to relocate to those places, for example through tax benefits.

日本政府還表示，隨着更多人離開仙台市、札幌市等北部城市前往東京，政府將通過稅收優惠等措施鼓勵人們搬到這些地方居住。

One prefecture that saw a population increase last year is the industrial hub of Aichi in central Japan, which experienced an influx of foreign migrant labor. Every prefecture in Japan except for Nagasaki posted a rise in the number of foreigners last year. Only the Okinawa prefecture experienced a population increase due to the number of births exceeding the number of deaths.

由於外國移民勞動力的涌入，日本中部的工業中心愛知縣去年人口出現了增長。除了長崎市以外，日本每個縣的外國移民數量都有所增加。只有沖繩縣的人口增長是因爲新生兒數量超過了死亡人數。

Japan’s government has for decades tried to lure people away from the capital and help rebuild depopulated and dilapidated areas, in a program broadly known as “revitalization of regions”. Some local governments have used tax cuts to encourage companies to leave the Tokyo area, while others will subsidize relocation costs.

幾十年來，日本政府一直試着吸引人們離開東京，去幫助重建人口凋零的衰落地區，這個項目也被稱爲“地區復興”。一些地方政府已經通過減稅來鼓勵企業離開東京地區，而其他地方政府則選擇發放安置補助費。

One island in the Seto Inland Sea crowdfunded money to repurpose an old house into accommodation for new arrivals, and managed to attract a few newcomers, according to the?Japan Times. The central government has even considered relocating some of Tokyo’s rapidly growing elderly population outside of the capital.

據《日本時報》報道，瀨戶內海的一個島用衆籌的錢將舊房改造成新居民的安置房，也確實吸引來了一些人。日本中央政府甚至考慮將快速增加的老年人口從東京遷出一部分。

There is, in fact, a growing trend of young Tokyo-dwellers who want to leave behind urban life in the capital to move to smaller, cheaper, and quieter parts of Japan. And some areas are enjoying success in attracting people and businesses to leave Tokyo, such as Fukuoka, a mid-sized city in Kyushu which has seen a large influx of tech workers and start-ups, drawn to the city’s lower costs and proximity to talent and markets in other parts of Asia.

事實上，越來越多的東京年輕居民想要遠離東京的都市生活，搬到更小、物價更低也更安靜的日本城鎮。日本一些地區已經成功吸引了一部分人和企業離開東京，比如九州的福岡市，這個中型城市涌入了大量技術人員和初創企業，吸引他們的是較低的物價，而且對亞洲其他地區的人才和市場可以近水樓臺先得月。

The small ski town of Niseko in Hokkaido is also enjoying a small increase in population, thanks to an explosion of interest overseas in Japan’s ski slopes. But with Japan’s vast government bureaucracy, its top schools, as well as companies all concentrated in Tokyo, escaping the capital looks set to remain a pipe dream for most.

由於外國遊客對去日本滑雪興趣猛增，北海道的滑雪小鎮新雪谷町的人口也有小幅增長。但是考慮到日本龐大的政府機構、頂尖學校和公司全都集中在東京，離開東京對大多數人來說恐怕只能是個白日夢。